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Sarah L Dixon performs

Leave a comment Posted on 4 August 202228 September 2022 by Sarah Dixon All Posts, Gigs, Home, Tour, Workshops

Marsden Mechanics – Quiet Compere 2022 Stop 7

September 16th 7pm doors. Event 730-10pm

Co-host Rose Condo

Rose Condo is an award-winning Canadian poet and educator based in the UK. A multiple slam champion, she has performed throughout the UK and internationally.

Rose has written and toured three solo shows: The Geography of Me (Spoken Word Award, 2021 Buxton Fringe), The Empathy Experiment (Best Spoken Word Show, 2019 Greater Manchester Fringe), and How to Starve an Artist (Runner Up Best Spoken Word Show, 2017 Saboteur Awards).

She runs workshops for people of all ages, exploring wellbeing through creative writing. Rose’s debut collection, After The Storm was published by Flapjack Press.

Writer / Performer / Poet

www.rosecondo.net

Showcase poets

Jack Faricy is a poet and English teacher who is studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield. He is working on a series of poems exploring the M62 and the landscapes it connects/divides. His first collection, ‘Traces’, is published by Calder Valley Poetry.

Felix Owusu-Kwarteng

Technician of science and kinetic arts.

Teller of tall tales, word of mouth disciple.

Hapless creator of oratory confusion.

Traveller of inconspicuous highways and occasional wearer of dubious trouser.

Has been seen here and there and is preyed upon by the parasitic influence of space rock and roots reggae.

Confused by the likes of Zappa and influenced by short term absurdity of life.

Sent out on a renewable 5-year mission to seek out words and breathe life into them.

This is the past, future and present biographical fate of one poet called Felix.

Please accept my humble apologies…

Tahira Rehman is a Performance-Poet and an Outreach support worker in Leeds. She has headlined at festivals and events such as Spoken Weird, Punk in Drublic, Cellar Stories at the Lawrence Batley theatre and she has supported a touring show at the Gosforth Civic Theatre.

Her poetry has been published in the US by Our Verse Magazine, Soul-Lit and locally by Make Our Rights Reality Charity. She is also the author of Mirages to Reality and ‘Inspirational Quotes From The Journey Of Reality.’ She also hosts the Tahira Rehman Poet Show which an be accessed on www.tahirarehman.com/podcast

“Tahira Rehman is a vibrant and vital addition to the scene. Her poetry has that unique combination of being timeless and fiercely contemporary. ” – Matt Abbott

“A uniquely styled performance that was atmospheric and powerfully thought provoking!” – Blur The Lines | Leeds Playhouse.

Tim Taylor has published two poetry collections, Sea without a Shore and LifeTimes, both with Maytree Press, and two novels. His poems have won, or been shortlisted in, a number of competitions and appeared in magazines such as Acumen, Orbis and Pennine Platform and various anthologies. Tim lives in Meltham, teaches Ethics part-time at Leeds University and enjoys playing guitar and walking up hills (not usually at the same time).

Anna Tuck is a poet, writer and DJ. She is inspired by many things including nature, womxn and music. Her work often includes the themes of beauty, community and the strength of the human spirit.

Joe Williams is a writer and performing poet from Leeds. His latest book is ‘The Taking Part’, a short collection of poems on the theme of sport and games, published by Maytree Press. His other work includes the pamphlet ‘This is Virus’, a sequence of erasure poems made from Boris Johnson’s letter to the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the verse novella ‘An Otley Run’, which was shortlisted in the Best Novella category at the 2019 Saboteur Awards. Despite all of that, he is probably most widely read thanks to his contributions to Viz.
www.joewilliams.co.uk

Workshop at Mario’s 2-4pm

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/quiet-compere-prompts-workshop-tickets-382426858027

Tickets for Showcase event and open mic (Limited 2 min open mic spots. Please book).

7pm doors. 730-10pm event.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/quiet-compere-marsden-mechanics-live-and-online-tour-2022-stop-7-tickets-382427299347

For both the workshop and the showcase there are limited free and half price tickets available for those who could not afford to attend otherwise.

1 Comment Posted on 7 July 202228 September 2022 by Sarah Dixon All Posts, Gigs, Home, Tour

Quiet Compere Tour 2022 – Stop 6 – online – Wednesday August 17th

Hosts – Sarah L Dixon, The Quiet Compere and Dave Pitt, A Poet, Prattler and Pandemonialist.

Siegfried Baber was born in Devon in 1989 and his poetry has featured in a variety of publications including Under The Radar, The Interpreter’s House, Butcher’s Dog Magazine, online with The Compass Magazine and Ink, Sweat and Tears, and as part of the Bath Literature Festival. His debut pamphlet When Love Came To The Cartoon Kid was published by Telltale Press, with its title poem nominated for the 2015 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. In 2020, he published London Road West, an ebook of poems and photographs. A debut collection of poems, The Twice-Turned Earth is forthcoming, and he is currently working on a book-length study of the medieval Grail romances.

Ruth Kelsey lives in Leeds. She is a member of Otley Stanza and reads her work regularly at events such as Otley Poets, Soundbites, Lit Up and Oooh! Beehive. She’s had poems published in various anthologies and magazines such as Dream Catcher, Obsessed with Pipework and Ink, Sweat & Tears, and was placed third in the 2020 Yaffle Prize. Her work was selected to be read as part of the 2021 Leeds International Piano Festival.

Jonathan Kinsman (he/they) is a trans writer living in York. He is a BBC Edinburgh Fringe Slam finalist and his poetry has appeared in many publications. He has three pamphlets: & (joint-winner of the Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize 2017), witness (Burning Eye, 2020) and Genderfux (co-written with Jem Henderson and JP Seabright, Nine Pens, 2022). His debut collection will be published by Broken Sleep Books next year. Find him on social media @manykinsmen.

Gill Lambert is a poet from Yorkshire where she writes and swims.. She has been widely published online and in print. She was the winner of the 2016 Ilkley Literature Festival Open Mic. Her first collection ‘Tadaima’ was published by Yaffle in 2019 and her second collection ‘A Small Goodbye at Dawn’ earlier this year. Along with her partner Mark Connors she runs online poetry workshops as well as running some in various locations in real life.

Sharon Larkin’s poems often begin with a visual stimulus but soon become ‘infected’ with psychosocial concerns, as is evident from her poems in ‘Interned at the Food Factory’ (indigo Dreams, 2019), ‘Dualities’ (Hedgehog Poetry, 2020) and over 200 poems in anthologies, magaxines and e-zines. A former civil servant, she runs Eithon Bridge Publications https://eithonbridge.com, edits ‘Good Dadhood’ e-zine http://gooddadhood.com and blogs at ‘Coming up with the Word.’ http://sharonlarkinjones.com Sharon’s academic background is in literature/art history and modern languages, with an MA in creative writing. She is proud of her Welsh heritage and enjoys photography, the countryside and the natural world.

Hannah Linden is from a working-class Northern background but has been based in Devon for many years. She is widely published and recent awards include 1^st prize in the Cafe Writers Poetry Competition 2021 and Highly Commended in the Wales Poetry Award 2021. Her debut pamphlet The Beautiful Open Sky is forthcoming with V. Press in autumn 2022. She is working towards a full collection. Twitter: @hannahl1n

Nicky Longthorne is a poet, performer, playwright and part-time pillock from Leeds. He often tackles challenging issues to raise awareness including mental health, specifically men’s mental health, domestic violence, toxic relationships, grief and loss amongst other things. He is currently working on his first poetry collection. Photo to follow.

Liz Mills was first on stage aged two and has never stopped performing, although now she sticks to her own words rather than learning an entire playscript. She taught as well as acting in semi-pro shows and the occasional film. She’s working on her first pamphlet, currently titled ‘ Clearance.’ She lives in Staffordshire tending her garden and wayward husband.

Finola Scott’s poems scatter on the wind, tapestries and magazines. They are in The High Window, New Writing Scotland, I,S & T and Lighthouse. She has been a winner in many competitions – recently Gutter Mag’s Ewin Morgan Competition, Paisley Arts Gallery’s Joan Eardly Competition, Speculative Fiction’s Eardly Competition, The Scots Language Society’s Sangschaw Competition. Red Squirrel Press pubish Much left unsaid. Dreich publish Count the ways, while Tapsalterrie publish Modern Makars: Yin. When not performing, Finola enjoys teasing grandchildren and blue-tits, not necessarily in that order. Poems & event information can be found at FB Finola Scott Poems.

Olivia Tuck’s poetry has appeared in print and online journals including The High Window, Under the Radar, Perverse and Ink Sweat & Tears, as well as Tears in the Fence and Lighthouse, where she interns on the editorial teams. She was the winner of the Poetry Society Young Poets Network Keats Challenge in 2021. Her pamphlet Things Only Borderlines Know is published by Black Rabbit Press.

Showcase:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/quiet-compere-live-and-online-tour-2022-stop-6-poetry-showcase-tickets-382431752667

Workshop:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/quiet-compere-live-and-online-tour-2022-stop-6-zoom-workshop-tickets-382431291287

Leave a comment Posted on 26 June 20227 July 2022 by Sarah Dixon All Posts, Gigs, Home, Tour, Workshops, Writeups

Bradford City Library Quiet Compere 11th June

The venue often feels like an extra performer. Bradford City Library (hosted by the excellent Dionne V. Hood) was no exception to this. They provide a cosy space between the shelves and a bust of Humbert Wolfe, a locally famous poet.

We had a good turn out for both the workshop and showcase event despite Arriva bus strikes. Two people from the workshop had never written poetry before and one attendee read the poem they wrote in the afternoon in the open mic section of the evening.

On the open mic Maz dedicated each of her four short poems to women in the audience who had been part of her writing journey which started in the last year or so. Yazmin read us a piece about quiet words and ended with ‘silence’. Steve shared a moving poem about how ‘the guys in here say I was born sad… I was born happy.’ Kellie gifted us a haiku.

Steve O’Connor

Steve was an excellent co-host and even invited me along to his workshop in the morning at the town hall and introduced me to the massive hot chocolates and Manchester tart at Café. Steve dedicated his poem Carrot Girl to Eileen Lumb and his mum. I enjoyed the defiant celebration of ‘We are people. We are here and we abound.’

And genius rhyme-play from Party to it:

‘Eyes squint, upturned collar,

Desires and designs on you

As your mates dance on the sofa

Because your folks are in Corfu’

from collection, Extrano (from Flapjack Press who have a Spring sale on until 30^th June).

Trevor Alexander

I enjoyed the rhymes ‘nervous/epidermis’ and alibied/inside. Trevor also read a positive and hopeful poem about health, ‘give me ten more years and I’ll think I’ve got a bargain.’

Nabeela Ahmed

There was such compassion in the poem Some Men, especially the lines ‘they remove slugs so you can be comfortable… Some Dad’s…create new stories each night, they teach you how to grieve the loss of failure and how to ensure victory.’

The phrase ‘don’t cramp her into a tiny jar of your expectations.’ ‘let her sing in the spring and dance in the rain.’ Such gentle and seemingly simple freedoms.

Nabeela performed a poem in Urdu with no translation and instructed us if we didn’t know the language we could enjoy the music of the sounds. This surprised me and made me think. Loved the fact Nabeela did not feel any obligation to share a translation.

Nick Toczek

I love the sad rhythm in the line ‘midges mass and mingle. We stay single.’ ‘Choke on your own hat/ charge you VAT’ made me smile. And the ‘ripples on love’s lake’ in your vibrating hotel rooms poem.

Sharena Lee Satti

Sharena shared a strong set of poems and particularly emotive lines were ‘Every planted seed is picked before it can blossom.’ and Sharena talked of sometimes being ‘just seen as a tick box in other people’s lives.’

Kathleen Strafford

Music seems to be one of the themes of Kathleen’s set. A rock n roll poem talking of ‘signing autographs on soft-skinned groupies’ and ‘how to stack a never-ending arsenal of 45s’. This reminded me of the time I found out I could load up more than one 45 and the Dansette would play them after each other. There as such tenderness in Kathleen’s poem about teaching her parents to twist ‘if twisting was their only foreplay I would have never been conceived.’ And in Things clouds get up to, ‘conjuring kidnapped mists into foggy lovers.’ A varied and strong set.

David Driver

Photographing David was a challenge because of how active he is. ‘a human goldfish, insanity season and the madness in bloom.’ I loved the 80s references in I want to be bionic – muppets, Dusty Bin ‘The Ceefax of all knowledge’. I remember following soaps and jokes in Ceefax. And from Barstool know it man ‘He’s welded up the Titanic. Been a Formula 1 mechanic. Tamed a Bengal tiger and didn’t panic.’ This guy is referred to as having ‘done everything and been everywhere’ whilst in reality he’s never left the pub.

Next up…

The next Quiet Compere gig is Wolves on Friday 1^st July…

Leave a comment Posted on 3 June 202228 September 2022 by Sarah Dixon All Posts, Gigs, Home, Tour

Wolverhampton Arena Theatre 1st July The Quiet Compere Bios and photos

Dave Pitt

The convention is for Dave Pitt to say how he’s a performance poet, playwright, a third of the Poets, Prattlers and Pandemonialists, a fifth of Stories From the Smoke Room, Arena Theatre Associate Artist and Shouty MC and then go on about winning awards and stuff. But conventions are just there to make you feel comfortable and sometimes, it’s nice to get out your comfort zone, ay it?

Mogs mostly writes, what he laughingly describes as, ‘humorous poetry’.

He regularly performs at open mic events and is a member of 2 writing groups based in Stourbridge in the Black Country.

He has had 2 books published by Black Pear Press.

‘Poems Your Parents Won’t Like’. Which is aimed at the younger reader, but should be safe for adults to read if supervised by a responsible child.

‘Griff’ – a children’s novel about a stone dog that comes to life.

You can hear him on SoundCloud and Youtube, or get more info on his website:

http://johnnymogs.co.uk/

Casey Bailey is a writer, performer and educator, born and raised in Nechells, Birmingham, UK. Casey is the Birmingham Poet Laureate 2020 – 2022. Casey’s second full poetry collection Please Do Not Touch was published by Burning Eye in 2021. Casey’s debut play ‘GrimeBoy’ had a sold out run at Birmingham Rep in April 2022. He is a Fellow of the University of Worcester and in 2021 was awarded an honorary doctorate by Newman University.

Alex Jakob-Whitworth is based in Cumbria, near the Lake District (but up on the fells, where there is more wind).

The first poem she “performed” was at an open mic, written on the back of an envelope an hour before – truly! Alex attended a series of workshops during lockdown – was hooked and hasn’t stopped scribbling since. To someone who talks too much – poetry is a welcome channel.

She enjoys the arrival of voices in her poems, the natural world; enabling near mythology to step in, and letting the pen go for a walk.

Priyanka Joshi is a London-born Wolverhampton-based performance poet.

Having ventured onto the spoken word stage just 3 years ago, she has gone on to become a multi slam champion, poetry headliner and placed 3rd in the UK SLAM championships in March earlier this year.

Her emotive body of work explores love, identity, mental health and motherhood through the lens of a British Asian female. Prepare to laugh, cry and have your heart break.

Gerald Kells is a poet from Walsall, sometimes serious, sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes all three at once. He has performed in a number of slams, including winning the Shrewsbury Festival slam. He won the Sandwell leg of the ‘Stay Up Your Own End Competition during lockdown. His work has also been included in a number of magazines and anthologies and has published a collection of 51 Poems (called 51 Poems). He has a YouTube channel as well as poems on Soundcloud. He also likes walking, gardening (after a fashion) and going round art galleries to get inspiration.

Emma Purshouse

Emma Purshouse was the first poet laureate for the City of Wolverhampton.

She’s a poetry slam champion and performs at spoken word nights and festivals across the UK.

Appearances include, The Cheltenham Literature Festival, Ledbury Poetry Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, Latitude, and Womad. She has been a support act for John Hegley, Holly McNish and Carol Ann Duffy.

In 2017 Emma won the ‘Making Waves’ international spoken word competition – judged by Luke Wright.

Her children’s collection ‘I Once Knew a Poem Who Wore a Hat’ (Fair Acre Press) won the poetry section of the Rubery Book award in 2016. Her collection ‘Close’ (Offa’s Press) was shortlisted for the same award in 2018.

Her debut novel ‘Dogged’ is published by Ignite Books.

Emma’s poem ‘Catherine Eddowes Tin Box as a Key Witness’ came 3rd in the National Poetry Competition in 2021.

https://www.whatsonlive.co.uk/…/the-quiet-compere/275340/

Leave a comment Posted on 22 May 20227 July 2022 by Sarah Dixon All Posts, Gigs, Home, Tour, Workshops, Writeups

Quiet Compere 2022 – Morecambe – Stop 3

Return to the bay

I went back to Morecambe, a place I fell hard for last year. One of the places I felt I could escape from the lockdown hangover and find pockets of normal, where I met such a supportive and friendly bunch of creatives. I return when I can. On arrival, I went for some drinks with my co-host, Matt Panesh and on my way home I found myself almost passing Popworld. I asked how much the entrance charge was and it was free so instead of seeing that as a reason not to go in, I decided to venture inside as I could leave when I was ready.

I made friends with a group who were out celebrating the birthday of their 23-year-old son and was dancing with son, sisters and their Dad. A good two-hour dance with a couple of Smirnoff Ice bottles. I was still up for a sea-swim by 10am and joined Matt in the cold bay. The hangover was banished!

Workshop at The Nib Crib

I ran a workshop at The Nib Crib with many of the creatives I had met on my previous visits and a couple of people new to the venue who were attending both workshop and reading at the open mic. The variety and quality of the pieces produced was impressive and some new poetry connections were made.

West End Playhouse

We started with an excellent open mic section from LaGrif, Clodagh Delahunty-Forrest, Voirrey Wild, Jim Lupton, Louise Hart and Rebecca Mélusine Samuels.

Matt stormed the open mic hosting and treated us to a couple of his own poems from his book Tribe: Collective Monkey Poets.

Showcase poets: I loved the fact the event was so varied in style. I think, if I put a bid in for 2023 I will make the variety a part of it. 10-minute platform slots for storytellers, comedians, prose writers, short excerpts form one person shows, verse novellas, flash fiction, pretty much anything you can do with words in ten minutes. Zoe and JJ Journeyman’s sets in particular, had these bid-writing cogs seriously firing.

J J Journeyman

I enjoyed JJ’s props (a hi-vis poetry vest and eye pad – sigh! and a suitcase he took on his trip dowsing for poetry). I liked the playful rhyme of wiser and Trip Advisor. JJ stepped in at quite short notice when one of our other performers could not perform and he wrote the piece especially for The Quiet Compere Tour. At the end of JJ’s set Martin Palmer had one task to throw a Paddington bear into the suitcase…

I was amused by the fact Martin had to take to the stage immediately after failing to throw Paddington into a suitcase. I was impressed he remembered the name of The Quiet Compere mascot, Alex, the non-binary komodo dragon and greeted them as he took to the stage showing he has an affinity with some of the cuddly animal kingdom even if he was not able to throw them accurately.

Martin Palmer

I love the music in Martin’s line ‘damp pet millipede on a doily’ a surprising contrast between doilies and insects and ‘the disused lidos of our dreams’. Martin read poems about the sea air bringing ‘notions of childhood.’

I definitely feel more childlike when hanging around in Morecambe, scouring shores for sea-glass, taking brisk swims and swapping hats, which somehow became a thing during my two visits last year. I did leave my hat behind at the B & B but the host sent it to me and said not to worry about the postage, so I sent some of my poetry books for his guest library. Bit of bartering.

Hat swapping – a new Morecambe tradition

Zoe Lambert

Zoe used props well – the coat, Awake! magazines and a Count Duckula diary. To me, as a teenager of the 90s there is a lot of charm in the references that date this piece (Duckula and Tammy Girl, to name two). Zoe told us ‘at thirteen I know how to say no to boys’ but that resolve and confidence changes with age, which is telling and true.

Sarah Corbett

Sarah treated us to a poem stuffed with singing comparisons that was like a lullaby, ‘he was pulse to her beat’, ‘she was sky to his fall,’ and ‘a flower grown for a word dropped in soil’. There was a lot of detailed landscape in Sarah’s pieces and she told us of ‘closed in valleys, like gossip.’

Peter Kalu

Such concise observation was apparent in Peter’s ‘this is how we say hello/this is how we say goodbye’ piece. The line ‘the sun rose on nothing new’ has stayed with me. And the Ukranian refugees poem that tells us ‘you cannot erase a bird’s memory of flight’ was beautiful and fitting.

It amused me that after Peter’s money-throwing (he asked us to throw notes at him) and the universe gifted me a tenner on the prom the next day, blowing along with no-one chasing it, so I took it as tour income from the universe.

Big Charlie Poet:

Big Charlie talks eloquently about depression and anxiety. ‘I don’t want to admit I am struggling at a time I should be happy.’ And ‘light will come if we just let it.’

And, from The Touch of you:

‘I know the touch of you

And how it makes me feel like I’m worth saving.’

And there was an after party, a hangover, a Sunday morning sea-swim and a long train ride home. Next up Bradford City Library on 11th June.

Oh! And I will be back in Morecambe for The Morecambe Poetry Festival in September.

Link to tickets here: Morecambe Poetry Festival 2022 Tickets | Morecambe Winter Gardens Morecambe | Fri 16th September 2022 Lineup (skiddle.com)

1 Comment Posted on 8 May 20227 July 2022 by Sarah Dixon All Posts, Gigs, Home, Tour

Bradford City Library Event Quiet Compere poets for 11th June 2022

Steve O’Connor

Steve O’Connor is a Mancunian living in West Yorkshire, where he teaches creative writing at colleges and libraries and runs bespoke distance learning courses. He devised and co-hosted Free Up, which revolutionised the Manchester poetry scene, worked with Write Out Loud and transformed their Trafford-based poetry open mic night, and co-edited all three volumes of Best of Manchester Poets. Steve’s Poetry collection, extraňo, was published by Flapjack Press in 2019. He wants more people to write; it’s his mission in life.

Showcase Poets

Nabeela Ahmed

Nabeela Ahmed is a writer, multilingual poet, spoken word artist and storyteller. She writes and shares her work in English, Urdu and Pahari. Her poetry was the main feature of Keighley Arts and Film Festival in 2020. She teaches creative writing and poetry workshops. She has had poems published in England, America, Pakistan and India. She self published her book, Despite our Differences via Amazon in 2018 and is currently working on her novel.

Trevor Alexander

Trevor Alexander is a retired Chemical Engineer living in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Since retirement in 2013, he has taken up writing, mainly poetry. To date he has had a number of poems published in anthologies and magazines in the UK and USA, in addition to his own book published in 2017. Trevor has also read his work at several Literary Festivals and is a regular contributor at poetry/spoken word groups.

David Driver

David Driver is an English writer, author, published poet, storyteller and broadcaster born and bred in Yorkshire.

He has written a novel, short stories and poetry for children and adults. David has performed with The World Storytelling Café, https://worldstorytellingcafe.com/ been involved with Settle Stories. His work has been published both in the UK and the USA.

In September 2020 three of his poems were published in `Viral Verses, Art in Exceptional Times`, https://www.viral-verses.com/

The ELI 24 project brought a successful bid to Silsden in October 2020 as part of Bradford`s, Culture Is Our Plan.

Sharena Lee Satti

Sharena Lee Satti, a poet and independent artist from Bradford whose inspiring words have been inscribed on park benches in Bradford to uplift local residents on their local park walks. Nominated for the National Diversity Awards in 2022 and as one of the ’21 of 2021′ creatives most likely to impact Bradford’s cultural scene, Sharena is a familiar voice on local and national radio. Her poetry collection She was published by Verve poetry press in 2020. Her work focuses on social and environmental issues.

Katheen Strafford

Kathleen Strafford is a graduate of Trinity University holding an MA in creative writing. She has been widely published on webzines and anthologies. Her first collection of poetry Her Own Language was published by Dempsey and Windle in 2017. Kathleen’s second collection Wilderness of Skin was published by Yaffle in 2019. She is the chief editor of Runcible Spoon Webzine and publishing. Her new collection Girl in the Woods and pamphlet Life Under Glass will be published this year

Nick Toczek

Nick Toczek is a Bradford writer and performer who has published more than fifty books, released dozens of recordings and done other stuff. For example, he’s a best-selling children’s poet, a professional magician and puppeteer, a journalist and radio presenter, and a bald bloke who has won prizes for his sudoku skills and for being able to eat hotter curries than is normal.

‘The most exciting and visual performer we have this side of Benjamin Zephaniah.’ – New Musical Express.

‘Toczek is bitter, disturbing and political. His language gets harder and more effective with each publication.” – The Guardian.

FREE EVENT – Showcase and open mic tickets available here:

The Quiet Compere Bradford City Library Showcase and open mic Tickets, Sat 11 Jun 2022 at 17:30 | Eventbrite

Free 90 minute workshop (230-4pm) tickets here (limited to 10 attendees):

Quiet Compere Bradford City Library Prompts Workshop Tickets, Sat 11 Jun 2022 at 14:30 | Eventbrite

2 Comments Posted on 3 May 202222 May 2022 by Sarah Dixon All Posts, Gigs, Home, Tour, Writeups

Chatham Quiet Compere (& Canterbury Stag)

On the way to Quiet Compere – Chatham, I called in to The Stag Café in Canterbury to perform my first live guest set since COVID started. It felt so good to be up there and engaging with an audience again. Brilliant sets from Tim Taylor, Christopher Horton, Gary Studley, Claudia Volpe, Kat Peddie, Sam Tate and Karen Smith. I loved it. Thanks for the invite and putting on a great event Gary and Christopher. I loved the sign as I feel a lot of us have been hungry for shared words, company and hugs in the past few months.

Canterbury Stag Cafe event – Sarah L Dixon, Christopher Horton, Gary Studley – 21st April 2022

On arrival in Chatham I met up with my co-host and fellow ale drinker, Barry Fentiman-Hall. We had a beer or three and it was good to reconnect ahead of the gig. I bet Barry was quite relieved to see that I had arrived and he would not be hosting workshop and showcase himself 🙂

This was not in the pub, Chatham Library Hub the next day. I don’t take my roller banner to the pub. I do love it though. Can you tell? Also, Barry is the only other person who has a purple tour t-shirt yet so far.

The Quiet Compere Live and Online Tour 2022 is supported using public funding by The National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The workshop sold out and a dozen of us wrote to three exercises and shared our pieces. The attendees were all ages and there were such a variety of takes on the prompts.

Open Mic Section

We started with a stellar open mic section with poems from Sue Puddefoot, Timothy Green, Zack Davies, Maria McCarthy, Richard Cooper and Sarah Tait. Zack Davies pointed out it was Shakespeare Day. Richard Cooper read a poem of Rosemary McLeish’s from I am a field (Wordsmithery, 2019).

Barry Fentiman-Hall

Barry had a lesson for life about knowing ‘the proper way of caring for Lego.’ and said ‘we all get our sunshine how we can’. His theme seems to be things are dark but there is some hope and it might be in the small things, so look carefully. His exquisite eye for detail was evident in the line ‘ It keeps the tiny ones amused, so that restless feet don’t wander in the life-stained footsteps of afternoon casualties’.

I think a jaunt to Kent is the way I get some of my sunshine from catching up with good poetry friends and making new ones.

Nina Telegina

Nina took us from intro to poem with an ease that tricked us into already being in the verse and shared such music with us in lines like ‘the journey gives up to the angering deep’ and ‘venture again into mist’. A line from her meme poem, ‘sipped Lipton with Kermit the Frog’, made me smile and I can’t stop saying this line over and over, give it a go, it is so satisfying.

Setareh Ebrahimi

Setareh shared with us several insightful pieces. I loved her description of ‘the exact moment you are new enough and actually alive.’ And later ‘in this moment, we are survivors’.

Christopher Hopkins

Ooo! The idea of ‘insects rubbing on the altar of the night.’ and ‘a pale bird in the wildling high’. Christopher’s set and delivery was spell-binding. And ‘sky is a grounded spell’ is a line I am still unpacking now.

Clair Meyrick

Clair continues the spell theme, actually I would say, if there was a theme running through the event it was magic or spells. Clair shared her poem Thread and she ‘gathers spider webs in the contours of her dress.’ and this poem ends with the gentle finality of ‘night closes with a catch’. Clair, then, gifts us the weird, but totally right ‘memory turns a corner with your mouth.’

Katy Evans-Bush

The spell-like rhythm of incantation is continued by Katy in the line ‘No antidote. No amulet. No way to avoid being charmed.’ And I enjoyed Katy’s description of ‘the sun itself in which the skin and heart both harden.’ from her poem Croonerisms from Broken Cities (Smith/Doorstop 2017). Katy also read a poem in honour of Shakespeare Day.

Nathaniel Oguns

‘I pick up blue-sky lilies from the shores of Tsushima.” (Great game!) I had to look this one up. Sounded like more weaving of magical places, and it is, a virtual magic, but still magic.

And Nathaniel ended the event with the line “I’m just playing and acting out fables of generations past.”

Thanks and Morecambe is next on the 14th May

Thanks to Barry and Chatham Library Hub, showcase and open mic poets and to all who attended the workshop or reading or shared the event for us. Thanks to the Arts Council for the funding.

It was so lovely to have some time with poets in The Command House beer garden after the event too. So often I spend the time after a Quiet Compere gig in my hotel room looking through feedback forms and drinking a small bottle of Prosecco.

I went for an affordable and really filling and tasty turkish meal at Taze. I would highly recommend it.

Co-hosts chilling with beer in Chatham sunshine

Bios of all poets are available on this site under the Chatham Bios blog post.

Leave a comment Posted on 5 April 20227 July 2022 by Sarah Dixon All Posts, Gigs, Home, Tour, Workshops

The Quiet Compere Tour – Morecambe Details – Saturday 14th May 2022

Workshop at The Nib Crib 330-5pm £10 + booking fee (one free ticket left) Please book as limited capacity.

Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/quiet-compere-prompts-workshop-morecambe-nib-crib-tickets-309312701617

Showcase and open mic at West End Playhouse 7pm doors 930ish event end £5 (+ £1 booking fee)

Booking advised for open mic and audience. Limited capacity.

THE QUIET COMPARE TOUR Tickets | West End Playhouse Morecambe | Sat 14th May 2022 Lineup (skiddle.com)

The Quiet Compere

Sarah L Dixon, The Quiet Compere of Huddersfield, is taking her unique show on a nine-date tour. Six live and three online events. This series will feature 73 performers and there will be short open mic sections at each event and workshops ahead of each showcase event.

The tour brings together a diverse selection of poets of all ages, cultures styles and experience, designed to entice an audience that may never have experienced spoken word events before. Sarah has been running spoken word events under her guise as The Quiet Compere for eleven years.

Quiet Compere events are unique. There are no lengthy introductions to poets, no-one is designated as ‘top-of-the-bill’ – all performers considered equal in Sarah’s eyes. Each line-up boasts a varied and diverse mix of poets, ranging from established local poets, some new to the scene who are ready to stun audiences with their talent, plus a generous sprinkling of nationally well-known poets and performers.

Matt Panesh

Matt Panesh was a multi award winning performance poet until 2015 when he “gave it a rest”. His material flitted between political social comment and crudity, and was polemic to the verge of confrontational, his shows had walkouts, sell-outs and in one memorable incident, a bottle-bin was hurled thankfully missing performer and audience. That show won two awards.

He’s written and performed several acclaimed one-man theatre shows including Welcome to Afghanistan, Love Hurts Actually, Greyhound and 300 to 1 which was selected for the Thespis Festival in Kiel, Germany and was performed on the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice in 2018.

In 2016 he moved to the West End of Morecambe where, with Nick Awde, he founded the Morecambe Fringe Festival and re-established the UK office of the International Theatre Institute.

Director of the Fringe he has seen it grow 625% since 2017.

He also opened up the Storefront venue The West End Playhouse, runs a “Make your Fringe show” Course, and produced and wrote the music for the local radio show The Alternative Space Programme putting Morecambe Spoken Word artists next to national and international voices.

Showcase Performers

Sarah Corbett is a prize-winning writer of poetry and fiction. She has published five collections of poetry, including the verse-novel, And She Was (Pavilion Poetry/Liverpool University Press, 2015), and most recently, A Perfect Mirror (Pavilion Poetry, 2018). She received an Eric Gregory Award for her first collection The Red Wardrobe (Seren, 1998) and her work has been shortlisted for the Forward and T.S. Eliot poetry prizes. Sarah is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Lancaster University, and lives in Hebden Bridge. A new collection of poetry is forthcoming from Pavilion in 2023.

Charlie Hart is a poet who has performed across the North, and at the Edinburgh Fringe, under the guise of Big Charlie Poet for over 10 years. His work is honest, from the heart, and tries to explore topics men aren’t encouraged to talk about. He is currently working on his debut pamphlet.

Joni j Journeyman is a local to the Lancaster and Morecambe area and has recently quit his job in the NHS, following a short illness, to lead a less stressful life. So why on Earth would he agree to do a spoken word slot, with very little material? Surely this is not stress-free occupation!? Jon does agree with this fact but as a lover of tbeing involved in the vibrant open mic scene and performing arts he wanted to dive straight in to create something. Jon is a fan of the creative process and in particular the rhythm of words, ideas, or just nonsense, evident in his song, I’ve got a horse called Jake.

Pete Kalu’s poetry can be found online on YouTube, at Lancaster University’s writers gallery, in the Bloodaxe Out of Bounds anthology, scattered across other anthologies, as lyrics to various songs (also on YouTUbe) , in his own poetry collection, Mongrel Moon, within his forthcoming short story, “Want me want me want me”(Lancashire Libraries) and at the back of his sc-ifi novel, Black Star Rising. His novel One Drop is published by Andersen Press in July 2022.

Zoe Lambert is a Mancunian expat slumming it in Lancaster, whose short stories have been published here and there, including Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, various anthologies by Comma Press, Confingo and other places. Comma Press published her connected short story collection, The War Tour. She is currently working on a book about losing her religion in Paris, which she is infuriatingly refusing to call either a novel or a memoir.

Martin Palmer is primarily a poet and is based in Morecambe. His long poem Till Roll was published by If A Leaf Falls Press in 2018, and he has been published in two Literary Lancashire Award Anthologies. He has performed at a number of events across the Northwest of England and is now enjoying being part of Morecambe’s creative community at The Nib Crib, a hub for writers and creatives that he helped to set up along with local, like-minded friends.

Leave a comment Posted on 20 March 202222 May 2022 by Sarah Dixon All Posts, Gigs, Home, Tour, Workshops

Quiet Compere Tour 2022 – Stop 2 – 23rd April Chatham Library Hub, ME4 4TX

Workshop 1030am-midday. Showcase and open mic 1.30-4pm FREE EVENTS

Book here: 01634 337799 or visit any Medway Library

Please note spaces for the workshop and open mic are limited and we could do with having an idea of the audience capacity so please book as audience too.

Co-Host

Barry Fentiman-Hall is a Medway based poet and mythwalker who is an indeterminate fraction of Wordsmithery. He is also the editor of Confluence Magazine. His works include City Without A Head (2013), The Unbearable Sheerness Of Being (2016), England, My Dandelion Heart (2018) and Sketches (2020) which are all available from www.wordsmithery.info/books He has an affinity with hares, cats and moomins.

Showcase Performers

Setareh Ebrahimi is an Iranian-British poet. She has been published numerous times in journals and magazines, including Proletarian Poetry, The Menteur and Ink Sweat & Tears.

Setareh released her first pamphlet of poetry, In My Arms, from Bad Betty Press and her full-length collection, Galloping Horses, from Wordsmithery. She regularly performs her poetry in Kent and London, has hosted her own poetry evenings and leads writing workshops. Setareh is currently an editor at Whisky & Beards Press and a reviewer at Confluence magazine.

Katy Evans-Bush is the author of two poetry collections from Salt, and a pamphlet, Broken Cities (Smith|Doorstop, 2017). Her former blog, Baroque in Hackney (‘The Guardian of poetry blogs’ — Roddy Lumsden), was shortlisted for the George Orwell Prize for political writing, and her essays, Forgive the Language, are published by Penned in the Margins. She is writing a book on the rise of hidden homelessness and the housing crisis (for CB Editions), and a new poetry collection. Her Substack page is A Room of Someone Else’s. She is a freelance poetry tutor and editor, and lives in Faversham.

Christopher Hopkins is Welsh writer living in the Canterbury area of Kent, England. His poems have been published in The Honest Ulsterman, The New European, Morning Star, 14 Magazine (Vanguard Readings), The Cortland Review, Indianapolis Review and Rust + Moth. He has three chapbooks with Clare Songbirds Publishing House, New York.

Clair Meyrick is a mother, poet, performer and artist. She regularly performs poetry in and around Kent and London. She also has a regular slot on radio. Published in a couple of journals and online she is now looking forward to illustrating her first collection of poetry, combining her love of painting and words.

My name is Nathaniel Oguns

An actor and a poet. I’ve lived in Kent for most of my adult life. I came to Kent from South East London. At first it was hard to adjust to this quiet area. The atmosphere and the pace of everything felt strange to me but now it’s become home.

After doing a creative writing course I was inspired to start poetry nights in the heart of Rochester. For spoken word artists and poets. It’s called ‘Kent Dreams’. So follow your dreams and use your gifts to inspire others. That’s my motto.

Nina Telegina

Nina Telegina is a poet, write and performing artist with over 10 years international experience. Nina is a multiple slam winner, including the Kent Championship Slam. Her debut poetry collection Llama on the Loose was published by Whisky & Beards in 2021 and her solo poetry show of the same name toured across Kent in 2018. She has featured in projects commissioned by The Marlowe Theatre and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Her work featured nationally on BBC Sounds as part of The Best of Upload 2020.

Leave a comment Posted on 24 February 202222 May 2022 by Sarah Dixon All Posts, Gigs, Home, Tour, Workshops

The Quiet Compere Stop 1 – Online – 19th March Workshop: 10-30-midday £10/5/FREE Showcase & open mic: 1.30pm start. 4pm finish.

Hosted on Zoom

Book for workshop, showcase and open mic here: http://thequietcompere.eventbrite.co.uk/

Please note open mic and workshop places are limited.

Tony Curry

Tony Curry is a performance poet, host, and facilitator. For the last 5 years he has been the host of Word Central. He has had three collections published through Flapjack Press, The Noble Savage, Tall Tales for Tall Men Who Fall Well Short and We Kid Ourselves.

‘Tony’s words dance off the page and into your bloodstream, leaving you pulsing with anger, humanity and love.’ Charlotte Oliver, writer

‘He is the minstrel whose strumming voice consoles and illuminates us.’ Neil Bell, actor

‘This is our poetry, these are our poems. They smell of home and friendship.’ Tony Walsh, poet

Holly Bars

Bio: Holly is a mature student currently studying at the University of Leeds. Her poems have been published since January 2021 by Ink, Sweat & Tears, Fragmented Voices, Porridge, Anti-Heroin Chic, Runcible Spoon, Spilling Cocoa Over Martin Amis and more, as well as appearing in anthologies. Holly writes about trauma, grief, council housing, being a mum, and living with a systemic health condition. She is currently working on her debut collection, which will be focused on surviving childhood sexual abuse.

Chaucer Cameron

Chaucer is a poet and the author of In an Ideal world I’d Not Be Murdered (Against The

Grain 2021) She has been published in journals, magazines, including: Under the Radar,

Poetry Salzburg, The North and Tears in the Fence, and was shortlisted for Live Canon 2021

International Poetry Competition for Single Poem. Chaucer is creator of Wild Whispers an

international poetry film project, and regularly curates and presents poetry film at events and

festivals. She is co-editor of the online magazine Poetry Film Live.

Dalton Harrison

Dalton Harrison is the founder of StandFast Productions (a collective of ex-offenders who use art and performance to tell their stories). Their play High risk was made into a radio play for chapel FM writing on air. Dalton performs his work at poetry events which explore many themes. His book ‘The boy behind the wall’ has now been published and brings you more of these hard conversations. Dalton has written articles for Inside Time, Pink News and Sister X TGN magazine, and his poetry has been published in the award-winning anthology Bloody Amazing and TransVerse II: No Time For Silence.

Pete Jordan

Pete is an accidental poet who spent most of his life knowing he couldn’t write, before discovering in a night of crisis a decade ago that he had to. Published in a best of 2020 Anthology and Obsessed with Pipework, he is a bicyclist, dancer, programmer, and guitarist for a Morris Dance side, living in Hull with four cats and one human being. Al Head Photo

Rebecca Lehmann

“Rebecca Lehmann started writing poetry in 2019. Her poems are inspired by her love of nature, but are pervaded with a sense of disconnection and awareness of our own domestication. From Faversham, in marshy North Kent, Rebecca writes frequently about her local landscape. She published her first pamphlet ‘She is the Wild’ in 2021 and has recently started performing her work.”

Katy Mahon

Shortly after the death of her father, poet Derek Mahon, in 2020, writing poetry became a strong element of Katy’s life. Her poems have appeared in Drawn to the Light Press, Ink Sweat & Tears, Northern Gravy, The Liminal Review, The Waxed Lemon and Dreich. Later this month her work will appear in the Irish Independent. Katy writes from her garden studio in York while her dog Sylvie chases the birds.

Jessica Mookherjee

Jessica Mookherjee is a widely published poet. She has been twice highly commended in the Forward Prize for best single poem and her work is included in notable anthologies such as ‘Staying Human’ (Bloodaxe). She is author of 2 full collections, her second Tigress (Nine Arches Press) was Shortlisted for best second collection in the Ledbury Munthe Prize. Her latest pamphlet is Playlists (Broken Sleep Books) and she has her next full collection “Notes from a Shipwreck” out with Nine Arches Press in Summer 2022. She is a co-editor of Against the Grain Press.

Adrian Salmon

Adrian Salmon lives in Bingley, West Yorkshire. Birmingham born, he was brought up in and around the Black Country and Worcestershire. His poems have appeared in several online and print journals, including Algebra of Owls; Ink, Sweat and Tears; Prole; and WRITE where we are NOW. In 2021 he was commissioned by the Edvard Grieg Korene in Bergen, Norway, to write four poems to be set to music by their associated composers. Adrian’s first pamphlet, Moonlight through the Velux window, was published in June 2019 by Yaffle Press.

Daniel Sluman

Daniel Sluman is a 35-year-old poet and disability rights activist. He co-edited the first major UK Disability poetry anthology Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, and he has published three poetry collections with Nine Arches Press. His most recent collection, single window was released in September 2021, and was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize.

Julia Webb

Julia Webb is a Norwich based writer from a working class background. She runs online and real world poetry workshops, mentors writers and is a poetry editor for Lighthouse. In 2018 she won the Battered Moons poetry competition. She has two collections with Nine Arches Press, and her third collection The Telling comes out with Nine Arches in May 2022.